"After everything I've been through in the last few years, I decided that NEVER AGAIN would anyone decide my future for me," Richarlison said in a Goal.com interview. The line landed as a proposed £25 million return to Everton stalled over an unresolved financial dispute, and Tottenham left him out of their Premier League squad.

Richarlison also said he remains under contract at Spurs and will stay available to the club. That is the important bit, because the Everton move was never presented as a completed deal, just a return that depended on agreement between the clubs.

Tottenham's squad call

The squad omission is the clearest sign that Tottenham are not planning around him right now. BBC reported that he has been left out of the Premier League squad and is expected to be unavailable for the first half of the season, even though the transfer windows in Turkey and Saudi Arabia are still open.

His current usage backs that up. Richarlison has only 1 Premier League appearance this season and has played 68 minutes, a very small return for a player being talked about as part of a major move. Everton's own interest has not vanished either, with the club closing in on Iliman Ndiaye, who scored 19 goals for Monaco last season.

Everton and the move that stalled

Richarlison's Everton return also carries some history. He scored 53 goals in 152 appearances during his previous spell at the club, so this was always more than a routine squad shuffle. Everton are currently 9th in the 2025-26 Premier League table, while Tottenham sit 20th, and that gap only adds to the sense that both clubs are making very different decisions about their forward lines.

Richarlison's own position is the one that matters most. He said that if Spurs and Everton reach an agreement, he would go back to his "beloved club", but he added that the negotiations will no longer happen the way "certain people wanted". The move has not been completed, and with the windows still open in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the story remains unresolved.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →